Citing the "make my day" law, officials announced Thursday that no charges will be filed against the man who shot Zoey Ripple, 21, after police say she drunkenly entered his home early Wednesday.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors will decide in the next few days whether to file any trespassing or other charges against Ripple, who is listed as a University of Colorado student majoring in speech, language and hearing sciences.

The owners of the modern, 4,000-square-foot home at 425 College Ave. are Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion, according to county records. They are both psychiatrists, and Orion is also an author.

Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion
(doreenorion.com)

Police said the husband and wife were in bed when they heard noises outside their exterior bedroom door at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The screen door was closed but unlocked.

In the darkness, they shouted to warn the intruder to leave and that they had a gun, but Ripple continued walking through the bedroom, and Justice fired one shot, police said.

When the homeowners turned on the lights, they saw Ripple on the floor with a gunshot wound to her hip and called 911, police said. They said they did not recognize her as anyone they knew.

Officials said preliminary tests indicate that Ripple's blood alcohol level was above 0.2 at the time of the incident.

In a recording of the 911 call, released by police Thursday, an upset Orion told the dispatcher, "Somebody came into our house, and we shot them." She went on to say: "She came in, and we started screaming at her to leave and she kept coming in."

Orion told the dispatcher that the woman was sitting up and talking on her phone after the shooting but seemed "kind of stoned or something" and wouldn't answer questions.

At one point, Orion asked Ripple, "Why did you just walk into our house when we were screaming at you to get out?" The answer was not audible.

Orion said the gun used in the shooting was a Glock.

The home where the incident occurred, listed for sale at $2.75 million, is at the western end of Boulder, where College Avenue dead-ends in the foothills.

DA Stan Garnett said the evidence in the case "fit the type of circumstance to which the 'make my day' law applies."

"This was an unfortunate incident for the homeowners in this case, who are understandably upset by what occurred, and for Ms. Ripple, who could have been fatally wounded," Garnett said in a prepared statement. "It is also unfortunate that we see a lot of incidents in Boulder where people become so intoxicated that they illegally trespass into another's residence. Luckily most of them don't result in someone being shot, but as this case illustrates, it certainly is a possibility."

Under the state law, homeowners are allowed to use deadly force if a person enters their residence uninvited and either has committed a crime other than trespassing in the residence or intends to. Homeowners are also within their rights to use deadly force if they reasonably believe a trespassing person intends to use any measure of physical force on any occupant of the home, under the law.

In an interview, Garnett said similar intrusion cases in the past have led to charges of first-degree criminal trespass, which are less serious than burglary charges.

"Ms. Ripple is still in the hospital, from what I've been told, so there is no rush on this," he said of the decision whether to file charges against her. "We also want to talk to the homeowners. We always talk to the people affected ... when it comes to the filing of charges. They won't get to make the decision, but we want to see what they have to say."

Colorado court records show that Ripple was previously arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Broomfield in 2010 and pleaded guilty. Court records show the charge was dismissed after a deferred sentence.

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